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Guwahati
The one abiding memory of Guwahati that I have is that of a street-vendor selling some insects as raw materials for food, along with a live reptile – a snake. After some misunderstanding and a few uncomfortable moments we ended up in a government guest house. Here our skills in communication were put to a rigorous test. I pride in the fact that I can speak good enough Hindi without a visible accent. But what if the guy you are talking to cannot?
R Burman was a cook at the guest house and for all his good intentions he spoke more Assamese than Hindi. The first task was to convince him that we were vegetarians. “Nimasi?” he asked. “Haan, haan, vegetarian, maas machchi nahi.” Delighted that he had understood, we waited for electricity. The power condition in the north-east is ridiculous. There are frequent cuts and here, the overhead tank at the guest house had gone dry. After some time, Burman-da came back, “Soti soti machli chalega?”
Somehow, we settled for a breakfast, lunch and dinner of Dal and Bhaat (rice).Luckily, we met Mr. D.C. Bora, who had formerly worked in Arunachal Pradesh. Our plan for Arunachal had been very skeletal and he was a godsend at that time. He not only gave us vital travel information, he also suggested a few hotels. The next day, we were ready to leave for our first significant stop, Manas National Park.
Manas National Park
General Ticketing:
Entry per person – Rs. 20
Entry for a vehicle – Rs. 300
Camera – Rs. 50 for still cameras.
Food: Provisions to be bought into the park.
The forest dept. has a cook stationed there.
Vehicle hire charges – Rs.1000-Rs.1200 per day. Fuel extra.
Accommodation – varied, needs to be booked
Elephant ride – Rs.100 per person
Barpeta Road is approximately 130 kms from Guwahati by bus. We paid Rs. 70 per head for the morning trip which lasted three hours. The mini-bus cramped you for space and it was generally crowded. But as we would learn later, this was one of our better journeys.
At Barpeta Road, there is a forest department office where we had to report and book tickets and accommodation. Manas spreads into Bhutan and has been declared a World Heritage Site. It is well-known for its bio-diversity and was a frequent haunt of wildlife lovers in the past decades. However, it had been closed for some time in the 90s after Bodo insurgency. The problem started in 1988 and lasted till as long as 2002, when insurgents ransacked the national park, cutting trees, butchering animals and even killing people.The forest department, in 2003, aided by the militants’ willingness to make peace, drilled into them the importance of conservation. This has become such a success now that erstwhile insurgents have become guardians of the national park. While we sat at the office talking to the affable Deputy Field Director, Mr. Ritesh Bhattacharjee, a couple of rough looking men came and chatted with him for sometime and left. We were told that they were former militants who had charted a different path for their lives now.
No one is allowed to walk to the park from the Barpeta Road office, which is 44 km away. It is imperative to take a vehicle to the park’s gates. Thus, we were led to Paresh Wari, a rotund, funny-looking, but smart chap who would be driving us in his Tata Spacio till our stay in Manas. We were to pay Rs.1000 a day, plus Rs. 500 for fuel. We bought some provisions from the market and Paresh tried to hide his dejection when he learnt we were vegetarians. The road to Manas National Park from Barpeta Road cannot be worse. In fact, where was the road? The vehicle moved like an involuntarily waltzing elephant on embers of coal. To the gates of the park, it is a journey of around 20 km. From there to Bansbari, where we were put up, it was a 24 km torturous path. To ease our mood, two peacocks came suddenly on our path and flew away with great splendour. Manas is famous for the golden langur and the pigmy hog. It was also once known for the rhino. But that and tigers were among the worst hit by the Bodo problem. The pigmy hog, apparently, is extinct. After the
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